Political commentary from the LA Times

Barack Obama works the phone, internationally

Truly, the president of France himself, not those imposters who pulled one over on Sarah Palin (listen below, in case you haven't caught up with that memorable moment in Campaign '08).

An aide to Obama, Stephanie Cutter, reports the president-elect phoned not only Sarkozy but eight other world leaders, "thanking them for having called to express congratulations on his election earlier this week."

Others getting the return calls were Prime Ministers Stephen Harper of Canada, Gordon Brown of Great Britain, Kevin Rudd of Australia, Ehud Olmert of Israel and Taro Aso of Japan; Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany and Presidents Felipe Calderon of Mexico and Lee Myung-bak of South Korea.

Via a statement released today, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad also passed along his congratulations. The Associated Press noted that the gesture represented the "first time an Iranian leader has offered such wishes to a U.S. president-elect since the 1979 Islamic Revolution."

And for a, uh, unusual comment by a foreign leader about the new U.S. president, click on the Read more line and see that video.

-- Don Frederick

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